The project features Roach’s work with boxers as he struggles to ward off the creeping symptoms of Parkinson’s disease — an aliment possibly linked to his own days in the ring.

“We want to find great character-based stories in a verite fashion that have a similar narrative framework to a drama series,” says Joel Stillerman, AMC’s senior vp programming. “The shows are not about what they’re doing, they’re about who they are, and there’s a narrative framework around the concept as opposed to anecdotal storytelling.”